Two Hearts
by Morganalafay
Summary: When a young girl appears in the middle of the TARDIS with a warning for the Doctor, he finds himself in a race against time to stop the universe from ripping apart and to save the woman he is too afraid to admit he loves. 10/Martha.
1. Chapter 1

_**Ok, so this is my first delve into the world of Doctor Who fanfiction. there are several things i should warn you of first. one - this is a pure 10/Martha story, do not read it if you are expecting any 10/Rose. two - there are many Doctor Who episodes that i have not seen so i apologize if i get some details wrong. This is set just after the** **episode **The Unicorn and the Wasp. _

_**so, please read, and i hope you enjoy. **_

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><p><em><strong>Chapter 1 ~ Beginnings <strong>_

The Doctor didn't need to sleep, but when he did his dreams were filled with nightmares. He dreamed of her, her deep, bottomless eyes, her dusky skin, her smile, and the feel of wrapping his arms around her small frame, the electric feeling of her lips pressed against his. And then his dreams would change, and he would watch those same eyes cloud over and become sightless and empty, feel her skin turn cold, and her body freeze. She would die, over and over, every night he dreamed, and no matter how hard he fought the dreams, he couldn't save her.

Tonight, they were dancing in ink, spinning gently on the spot; the twinkling stars overhead the only light for them to see by. And then the dark slipped away and Daleks, the creatures that were always responsible for the end of his dreams, surrounded them. This time she threw herself in front of him as one of the Daleks fired. He screamed her name and caught her as she fell, cradling her still form to his chest as the tears started to fall from his eyes.

He woke up in a cold sweat in the darkness of his room to the loud humming of his TARDIS. She soothed his mind as he pushed the images away and held his head in his hands. That was why he had never admitted his feelings for her, and why he never would, because he simply couldn't let that happen. He had vowed to himself long ago that he would never lose her and that he would never watch her die. And so he pushed those feelings away, pushing her away in the process, and ignored the way his hearts leapt whenever she smiled, the way they kicked into overdrive whenever he hugged her, much to the chagrin of the TARDIS.

The Doctor swallowed past the lump in his throat and pushed down the rising tide of painful memories. He reached out in the semi darkness and groped around on his bedside table for a moment. He found what he was looking for and his long fingers curled automatically around its familiar shape. He found the cold slim surface comforting in his hot hand and held it up to press it against his cheek, shivering as the cool plastic came in contact with his skin. He lay back on the bed and allowed the TARDIS to lull him into a gentle, hopefully dreamless sleep, with her face fixed firmly in his mind, and her phone held in his lightly curled hand.

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><p>Donna was sitting in the TARDIS kitchen, fiddling absentmindedly with her cereal. Her mind kept going over the events that had occurred during her latest adventure with the Doctor, replaying the swirling images in her brain. She still couldn't get over the fact that she had met Agatha Christie and the fact that the actual solution to her mysterious disappearance lay at the bottom of a pool in the form of a giant wasp. Sure she had seen some strange things while on her travels with the Doctor, some really strange things if you put it to that, but she had never thought that Agatha Christie would be in anyway involved with aliens. She smiled suddenly, wondering how the other people who had been involved in the mystery were coping. Then again, as the Doctor put it, they were probably just fine; they were British.<p>

Suddenly the Doctor himself bounced energetically into the room, grinning from ear to ear like a maniac. Come to think of it, Donna wasn't a hundred percent certain he wasn't. A genius, yes, a good genius, of course, but perhaps slightly mad.

The redhead watched with interest as the legendary Time Lord strode over, still grinning widely, and said, 'have you finished breakfast?'

Donna raised her eyebrows, 'that's why you came in here? To ask me if I'd finished breakfast? You're getting stranger every day space man'.

The Doctor pouted, 'I just wanted to ask you whether you were ready to keep travelling, I'm getting sick of just floating in the vortex'. He bounded over to the table and grabbed an apple from the fruit bowl, bitting into it with relish before looking at her inquiringly again.

Donna watched the juice trickle down his chin for a moment before saying, 'yeah, I'm ready'.

The Doctor grinned excitedly and then strode off towards the console room. Donna smiled, privately thinking that he had just proved her point. She had another couple of bits of cereal and then chucked the rest in the bin. She dumped the bowl unceremoniously in the sink and then left the kitchen.

Donna walked into the console room and then stopped when she spotted the Doctor. He was standing in from of the consoles, staring into space, all of his previous excited energy gone. His eyes were down cast and his shoulders slumped. One of his hands was shoved deep in his pocket, and in the other he held a slim mobile that he was staring at. Donna sighed, knowing exactly what he was thinking about and feeling very sorry for him. That pity was suddenly replaced by annoyance though, irritation that he just wouldn't admit how he felt.

She cleared her throat and strolled into the room, 'well you pulled me away from my breakfast, and I hope you have something good in mind or I'll throw the rest of my cereal in your face'.

The Doctor jumped and turned, a grin plastered on his face, slipping the phone into his pocket as he did, and said, 'well we've met one genius writer, I thought you might want to meet another'. He started to press buttons on the console, talking rapidly, 'Enid Blyton, Jane Austin, Charles Dixons, oh!' he grinned again, 'what about J.K? She's absolutely brilliant!'

Donna laughed, 'what about Shakespeare? I've always wanted to know whether you can tell he's a genius by looking at him'.

The Doctor's face saddened for a moment before he said, 'nah, I've already met him and—'

'Really?' interrupted Donna, raising her eyebrows, 'who with?'

The Doctor shrugged, 'Martha, but what does that matter, why don't we meet someone new?'

Donna sighed, unsurprised of his reluctance now, 'fine…what about J.K. Rowling?'

The Doctor grinned and started bustling around the console, 'J.K. it is!'

Donna leaned against a poll and watched him as he chattered excitedly, 'I've always wanted to meet her, I wonder if there will be some kind of alien involved, there usually is when ever we visit someone isn't there?' he looked up at Donna then frowned, 'Donna?'

Donna wasn't listening; instead she was staring at something on the other side of the room. She said very slowly, 'Doctor, you said that it was impossible for people to appear in the middle of your ship right? Except for me'.

The Doctor nodded, 'except for that one time, yeah' he started to turn around, searching for what Donna was staring at.

'So what the bleeding hell is that?' asked Donna, pointing to something that was moving on the other side of the room.

There was a strange ripple in the air in front of them, like the way the air shimmers on a really hot day. As they watched, dust started to rise off the floor of the TARDIS and began to spin gently around the ripple, increasing in speed as more and more dust rose up. Donna blinked, her eyes watering as she tried to focus on the ripple and the spinning dust at the same time and realised that what she had mistaken as dust was actually sparkling, like bright glitter. A moment later the glitter stopped revolving and seemed to solidify, taking on the shape of something that was vaguely human. Then the ripple in the air abruptly expanded outwards and, Donna wasn't sure exactly what she was seeing but it looked as if something stepped _out _of the ripple and into the solidified glitter. A second later, there was a young woman standing frozen in front of them. Donna blinked and stared, unsure exactly how that had happened, at the strange woman who was still standing completely still.

The woman was very tall and slender and her skin was a light olive tone, which still seemed to shimmer with specks of glitter. She had black hair, which fell in rich tresses to her shoulder blades, and her beautiful face was creased slightly in concentration. Her deep brown eyes were fixed steadily on her left wrist, and Donna thought she could see a strange watch strapped there. After a moment Donna realised that the young woman was probably still somewhere in her late teens.

Donna glanced at the Doctor, 'how did it happen this time? Huon particles again?'

The Doctor shrugged 'I don't think so'. He still looked surprised, but definitely not as much as the time Donna had appeared in his ship all that time ago. He strode over to the girl. He walked around her once then reached out and tapped her on the shoulder curiously. It was as if that triggered something; the girl suddenly jerked to look at him, blinking her almond shaped eyes rapidly. The Doctor grinned manically, 'hi! I'm the Doctor and you just appeared in the middle of my ship!'

To Donna's slight surprise the girl grinned just as excitedly, 'I do apologise for surprising you!' her voice was clear and musical and full of a ceaseless energy like the one Donna saw in the Doctor every day.

_Great, _thought Donna, _another insane traveller._ She walked over to them and stuck out her hand, 'I'm Donna, the Doctor's companion. We'll get along fine as long as you don't call me a 'plucky young girl". She threw a glare in the Doctor's direction, referring to their last adventure. The Doctor had the decency to look sheepish, ducking his head so that she wouldn't see his smile.

The girl took the proffered hand with a smile, looking the redhead up and down as she said, 'Cora Smith'.

Her beautiful smile was infectious Donna couldn't help smiling in return, 'so how did you get here?'

Cora smiled and tapped her wrist. A strange watch was strapped there in leather, flashing with several small buttons and lights. The Doctor, who had been watching the proceedings with some interest, said passionately, 'another one! One day I'm going to have to find out where you people are getting those'.

Donna raised her eyebrows, surprised by the vigour in the Doctor's voice, said, 'what is it?'

The Doctor stared at the watch-thing with narrowed eyes, as if he expected it to blow up at any minute, 'it's a Vortex Manipulator. It's a way to travel, through time and space. Its like illegal time travel'.

Cora snorted, 'you know that you have never changed that opinion, ever'.

Donna cocked her head, 'so you know the Doctor, in the future? Is that why you're here, to stop something bad from happening? Of course you probably can't say much, in case it does something to the time space continuum thing'.

Cora raised a slender eyebrow, 'oh your good, some of the Doctor's companions have never quite understood that'.

The Doctor frowned slightly, wondering if she was referring to anyone in particular, 'why are you here though, and err how did you get here?'

Cora's excited energy seemed to abate some what as she said, 'I'm here to warn you about something that is going to happen very soon that will destroy the world unless you stop it'.

The bubbly red head sighed, 'it can never just be a social visit, can it?'

The Doctor smiled slightly, privately agreeing with his fiery companion, 'what happens?'

Cora sighed, 'someone kidnaps and then experiments on Martha Jones'.

The Doctor's blood froze, the world tilted and his head rang as his hearts kicked into over drive. Martha…why Martha, why did something bad have to happen to her, the person he cared about almost more than anyone else. He shook his head, trying to clear it, knowing that he couldn't think like that because he was still trying to figure out his jumbled feelings, and what he was feeling at the present time was too painful to dwell on.

He blinked twice then looked down at Cora again, gazing into her anxious eyes as he said, 'what happens?'

A second later, Donna asked, 'and what's it got to do with the end of the world?'

Cora smiled slightly, 'we're not sure, all we know is that she is taken by someone who does some sort of experiment on her and that around 48 hours later, the universe rips itself apart'. She leaned against the console, careful not to press any buttons, and continued in a dejected voice, 'we knew that something like this would happen, Martha would be kidnapped for example, but something changed and I'm here to make sure the universe doesn't end'.

The Doctor, partly on edge because of his concern for Martha, said angrily, 'so you don't care about Martha at all, you just care about the end of the world'. He knew he was being unfair, but he wasn't sure that he cared right now.

The young time traveller didn't rise to the challenge, but only said, 'that's not true Doctor. But you know better than anyone that you can't just travel through time to save one person, no matter how important they are to you. No matter how much you love and care for them, you can't risk what could happen to the fabric of time just for the sake of that person. What ever is going to happen is a result of something that happens to Martha, something that wasn't supposed to happen, and it needs to be stopped…' she stepped closer and said quietly, so that only he could here, 'for your sake as well as the rest of the worlds'.

She stepped away again and said softly, 'I know what I am talking about. Having the ability to travel in time is both a blessing and a curse, because you see everything that is wrong with the world, you watch people die and you know that you can't change it, can't risk it, even if you think that it would better the world…because you know that you might be wrong'.

The Doctor stared at her; shocked at how much she seemed to understand, and how much she seemed to know about how he felt about Martha…feelings he wasn't even sure of himself. He stared into her deep brown eyes, eyes full of understanding and sympathy, and felt a spark of recognition. There was something very familiar about her, but he couldn't put his finger on it.

After a moment of silence Donna cleared her throat. Both time travellers jumped and looked at her, as if they had completely forgotten she was there. She said dryly, 'well, if you have come all this way, shouldn't we be busy saving Martha?'

The Doctor immediately launched towards the console and began to press several buttons, in what seemed to be a random order. Cora moved out of the way and moved to stand by Donna, but said nothing.

Donna stared at her unabashedly, as was her nature, and then said accusingly, 'there is something about you Cora, something odd and weirdly familiar…and it's annoying the hell out of me, like an itch you can't just can't reach'.

Cora laughed suddenly, 'I've never been likened to an itch before, but there is a first time for everything'.

Donna punched Cora in the arm good-naturedly then said, 'you know, it will be nice to have someone to talk to, the Doctor may be brilliant, but I really don't understand what the hell he is talking about sometimes'.

Cora winced and rubbed her arm, 'I hate it when—' she stopped suddenly, looking rather guilty then said brightly, 'do you like apples?'

Donna groaned, 'oh lord, you too? Is it in the nature of time travellers to be so excentric?'

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><p><em><strong>so, what do you think? still interested? if so, please continue reading this story! and please review! i accept criticism, but please no flames :)<strong>_


	2. Too Late

**_ok, here is the next chapter! thank you to all who reviewed, i just have to say that i was shocked at the number of reviews i got, you guys must really like this story! (which im not complaining about!) :)_**

**_so, please read, and enjoy!_**

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><p><em><strong>Chapter 2 ~ Too Late<strong>_

The Doctor opened the door of the TARDIS and peered out into the quiet street. It was still early morning, and he wondered whether Martha would even be awake yet. He glanced over his shoulder at the women, who both seemed to be waiting for his next move. He cleared his throat and addressed Cora, 'are you sure that this is the right day and time?'

She nodded, 'I arrived in the TARDIS on what would have been around six in the morning here, I just got you to pilot the TARDIS to an hour later. We have several hours before she is due to go missing'.

He nodded and hesitated, unsure at that moment how to continue, when Donna said impatiently, 'come on, we don't have all day'.

The Doctor felt heat rising to his face and said quickly, 'right, you two stay here, I think I should be the one to tell Martha what's going on'. He stepped into the street and was walking quickly away before either woman could reply.

Cora watched him go then turned to Donna, who was gazing after the Doctor with a troubled expression, 'what was all that about? He seemed suddenly flustered'.

Donna shrugged, 'skinny is in love with Martha Jones'.

Donna turned back into the TARDIS, leaving the statement hanging on the air as Cora followed her, saying, 'what just like that?' she sounded not exactly curious, but as if she was trying to confirm something.

Donna smiled and sat on the floor of the TARDIS, gazing up at the dusky young woman who watched her as she said, 'I saw it plain as the nose on my face when I was here last. When she called…you should have seen the way he went to answer; it was as if he had been desperately wishing that she would call, but was suddenly afraid to talk to her. And when we actually met her, I could see it, even if he himself couldn't. And afterwards, ever since we left again, I sometimes catch him staring at the phone as if he can will her to call him just like that and he stares into space with a faraway look in his eyes as if he is remembering something. I used to think it was to do with the companion he had before Martha, Rose, but I know differently now. I was with them both for only several days, but I could see it. And now he gets to see her again, and you can bet your life that he won't tell her how he feels, no matter what he wants'.

Cora sighed, 'that's actually really…sad' she sounded slightly surprised, 'do you think he realises how he feels himself?'

Donna shrugged, 'I think he is starting to…or at least I hope he is. Its really hard to live with a depressed Time Lord'. She looked into Cora's face for a moment then abruptly changed the subject, 'so, tell me about yourself, or what you can tell me without changing the fabric of time anyway'. She paused then continued, 'for instance, how do you know that the destruction is caused by Martha being experimented on. I mean you said that it's meant to happen 48 hours _after _she goes missing, so how did you know she was the cause?'

Cora hesitated for a moment, weighing her answers and trying to decide which ones wouldn't damage anything. Finally she said, 'at the time this happened, when history changed I mean, I am the Doctor's companion'. She stopped for a moment and seemed to go into deep thought, beginning again slowly, 'I can't tell you why, but at that time Martha was also there, with us I mean. The TARDIS sensed the change and at the exact same moment, Martha vanished. The rest of the world, including myself, just started to fade. The Doctor got me back on the TARDIS before I faded completely, but it was too late for some people'. A shadow passed over her face as she spoke and Donna noticed the way she started to rub her arms, as if she was suddenly cold. Cora swallowed hard, 'I lost my siblings. They faded before the Doctor could get them on board'.

Donna stared, shocked, and completely at a loss at what to say. She didn't have any siblings, so she couldn't imagine what it would be like to lose them, and be the only one to survive. She could imagine the guilt though, and the anger at what ever had caused it, aside from the obvious grief. After a moment Donna said softly, 'I'm sorry'.

Cora seemed to shake herself, 'after that we went to the TARDIS and spent the next day or two in the vortex, figuring out what had caused it and how to stop it. The Doctor worked for ages on this vortex manipulator, trying to make it as accurate as possible, especially as he didn't know exactly where the TARDIS would be. He ended up altering it so that it could only transport you into the TARDIS, but only if you were in it at another time. He also spent the entire time telling me what I couldn't tell him or you'.

Donna searched her face, noticing that she had a far away look in her eyes. After a pause she said, 'there was no choice in sending you back was there?'

She laughed humourlessly, 'I was the only person who we knew was alive that was at no risk of running into a past version of themselves. The Doctor couldn't come back because we needed to tell the past version of him and if he met himself that would cause a paradox. Besides, I wanted to do something, and aside from the fact that the Doctor trusted me, he knew that I wanted to stop whoever had destroyed my family, and that I would by any means possible. So no there was no choice, not for me anyway'.

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><p>The Doctor stood outside the door of Martha's flat, stomping his feet in the cold, gazing back over his shoulder at the TARDIS only just visible from the other side of the street through the early morning mist. Now that he was here, about to see her again, he suddenly felt…well nervous would be the word. He had only seen her a couple of days ago, and yet his throat was dry and he was fidgeting by bobbing up and down on the balls of his feet. He had only felt like this a couple of times before, the most recently having been when he last saw Martha, less than a week ago. He wondered what would have happened if she had decided to travel with him and Donna again, whether her life would still be threatened. He rubbed his hands together, wondering whether he was nervous because of actually just seeing her, or whether it was because he would have to tell her that someone was going to kidnap and experiment her, and that that would somehow cause the end of the world. Martha had put her life in danger many times before, and had usually ended up saving the Doctor and many others, so he doubted that she would overly worry about that. What he knew she would be terrified of was that she could somehow have something to do with the destruction of countless lives, and not just in this universe. It was one of her many traits, the ability to wave away the dangers to herself if it meant that someone else could be saved. It was both something that he admired and something that terrified him; it was too parallel to the dreams that haunted him.<p>

Shaking off his thoughts, the Doctor took a deep breath and fixed her face in his mind. Even as he concentrated on her fine features he felt his muscles relaxing and the tension in his mind and his body evaporating in the cool air. It was a crisp cold morning and he could see his warm breath in the air in front of him as he breathed in and out, feeling the calming affect she had always had on him as if she was really there.

After rolling his shoulders and clicking his neck, the Doctor took another breath, reached out towards the door and knocked. The door opened slightly at his touch.

The Doctor stayed completely still for a moment, trying to shake off the feeling rising inside him rapidly, then called out, 'Martha?'

There was no reply and he pushed the door further open, enabling him to see that her hall was littered with books and torn pages. The door stuck suddenly, and he had to lean his whole body against it and shove hard for it to budge even slightly. He managed to open it enough to squeeze his body through the gap and slip into the hallway.

Then he turned around, and froze, staring in shock and horror at the scene of destruction before him. Torn books and pages littered the floor in front of him, having tumbled from the bookshelf that had fallen against the door. A table had been broken and splintered all over the floor, and someone, or something, had gouged chunks out of the wall. Plaster had fallen from the ceiling and bits of wire dangled dangerously from above. Feeling almost as if he was in a dream, the Doctor moved slowly into what had once been a living room, but what now resembled the results of a bomb. The couch had been over turned, the stuffing ripped out, springs thrown all over the room and parts of the wooden frame splintered into the ground. The TV had been chucked onto the ground and little bits of glass littered the ground around it. Tables, chairs, lamps, anything that could be thrown or destroyed had been, leaving everything in little pieces. Whoever had been here clearly hadn't been looking for something; someone who deliberately wanted to cause destruction had done this.

The Doctor shook himself and shouted, 'Martha? Martha are you here?'

There was no reply, which was expected, but he had hoped there would be all the same. He walked into the kitchen, splattered with food and broken glass, and looked around. He started to search every room as well as he could, in a vain hope that there might be something to give him a clue.

He ended up in her room last, and it was there that he found the thing that frightened him the most. Martha's bed had been over turned, the curtains stripped and the lamps hurled across the room. And spreading over the floor near the window and seeping over shards of glass was blood. The Doctor let out a sound that sounded like a small animal in pain and moved forward hesitantly. He kneeled down beside the stain and took out his sonic screwdriver and scanned the blood with shaking hands. It was human.

For a moment the Doctor sat there, staring at the dry blood, and feeling his anger rise to the surface. Anger against whoever had done this, anger at himself and his cowardice for not telling Martha how he felt, and anger at the fact that he was considering that he might never see her again. It was an ancient anger, one that he was afraid of letting out on the people he cared about, the type of anger he felt towards the Daleks, the anger that he had felt when his daughter, Jenny, had died, the anger that had nearly driven him to kill. He leapt to his feet and lashed out, kicking the end of Martha's up turned bed in a rage, not feeling the hurt he did to his own foot. He stood there for a moment, seething, and then spun on his heel and strode towards the door.

Something crunched under his feet. He stopped and bent down, picking up the battered, ripped half of a photo frame. Something sharp had torn a jagged line straight through the metal and glass and the photo it encased. It had once been a picture of Martha and another person, but it now only contained the half with Martha. She was smiling that enchanting smile of hers, her eyes shinning in the light coming from behind the camera, full of laughter and mischief.

He pulled the picture out of the ruined frame, careful not to tear it any more, and whispered, 'I will find you Martha, I promise'. Then he tucked the photo into his pocket and left the room, leaving his anger, and his promise, hanging in the air.

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><p><em><strong>so what do you think? any ideas? im open to constructive criticism :)<strong>_


	3. Complicated Secrets

_**here, finally, is the next chapter. I'm so sorry that its taken so long, by beta was busy for a long time and I was also spending time on Pottermore :P **_

_**anyway, here you go, enjoy, and please review!**_

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><p><em><strong>Chapter 3 ~ Complicated Secrets<strong>_

When he re-entered the TARDIS he found a very heavy atmosphere. Cora was standing near the console and Donna was sitting opposite her, gazing at her new friend with an expression of sadness and compassion. The silence was not awkward, nor strained, it was strangely companionable. If the Doctor hadn't been so on edge that his head was about to explode he probably would have realised he was walking into something very touching and probably would have left quietly. As it was, he didn't even notice the unshed tears in Cora's eyes.

As he moved forward Cora jumped slightly and, on seeing the expression on his face, moved forward, full of concern, clearly sensing that something bad had happened, 'what's wrong?'

The Doctor stood still, his fists clenched in an attempt to hold in the anger and fear that threatened to burst out of him, then said quietly, 'we were—' his voice cracked and he had to start again, swallowing, 'we were too late. We were too late' he repeated despairingly.

'What?' shouted Donna, a rebuff on the tip of her tongue fleeing as she leaped to her feet.

'That's not possible', whispered Cora, leaning heavily on a rail, her voice echoing the disbelief and horror she felt.

The Doctor said, 'I found…' he stopped, unable to continue as he remembered the blood that he had found. After a moment he tried again, 'the flat was completely trashed and there was evidence of a struggle. Whatever took her was distinctly not human'.

Donna stared at him and then turned to Cora and asked bluntly, 'but how come we turned up late? You said that we had a whole day before she would be taken'.

Cora was gripping the railing so hard that her knuckles were whitening rapidly. After a moment she whispered, 'we should…' suddenly her eyes widened in horror and she asked sharply, 'what is the date?'

The Doctor glanced at a screen on the console and said unemotionally, 'the fifteenth'. He was still battling to keep his emotions in check, his anger and his fear, and was getting absolutely nowhere. The image of destruction in Martha's flat kept springing up in his mind and the photo he had taken from the flat seemed to burn his skin through his shirt.

There was a split second of silence in which Donna saw Cora's face transform and felt the sudden rising tension in the girl's body. The next moment, Cora had slammed her hand into the metal railing hard, ignoring the obvious damage it may have caused and the angry hum of the TARDIS, and started to shout violently in a language that Donna didn't understand. She may not have understood what the girl was saying, but the meaning was clear. She was frustrated, angry, and by the look in her eye, scared.

After a moment she suddenly switched to English and continued to rant, '—I told him! I asked him over and over whether I would loose any time because it was a prototype and not a hundred percent accurate. And after all that time it took, I have to arrive a day late!' she was clearly talking to herself and after a moment she stopped, her shoulders slumping and her eyes full of despair.

The tense silence was abruptly broken by the Doctor's shocked voice saying, 'where the hell did you learn to speak my language?'

Donna, who could see Cora in profile, saw her eyes close and her neck stiffen as an expression of absolute horror crossed her face. The Doctor was staring at the back of her head, his face drained of colour and feeling completely numb. It was impossible that she could know his language, unless she had been taught, and he knew that he would personally never teach anyone he knew, not even his companions, and there was no one else who could. He stepped forward slightly and repeated, 'how do you know my language? Did someone teach it to you? Who are you?'

Cora took a deep breath and turned to face him, 'I can't tell you and you know why. I'm from the future, what you want to know could cause a paradox'. There was a blank mask over her face, though her eyes were full of desperation, and her voice held a pleading note.

The Doctor seemed to go through some inner struggled before he managed to say, 'tell me one thing; are you a Time Lord?' Donna felt her heart crack at the obvious hurt and desperation in his broken voice, as well as a small amount of hope.

Cora held his broken gaze for a moment, her face completely clear and calm and then said, 'I can't tell you. Not yet, not until this is all over. Then I will tell you'. From her position, Donna could see that the young girl's hands were twisted tightly behind her back, and suddenly understood exactly what Cora had put at risk. She couldn't tell the Doctor whether she was a Time Lord or not because either way it would change something, no matter how miniscule, in the future.

The Doctor opened his mouth to protest and then clamped it shut, nodding mutely instead. Donna suddenly stepped forward towards him and said quietly, 'Doctor, right now we need to find Martha. Right now she needs you and you're the only one who can find her'.

She had said the right thing. The Doctor's head snapped up and he fixed his gaze on Cora with a different, but just as strong, intensity, saying, 'right, is there anything you know about where she's been taken?'

Relief briefly flooded Cora before she wiped it from her face and said quickly, 'we only know that its some kind of warehouse, or a underground bunker, but nothing else. She might not even be in the city'.

The Doctor nodded and produced his sonic screwdriver, 'I scanned her blood a moment ago—'

'What! There was blood? As in Martha's blood? Why didn't you say something?' shrieked Donna, her concern for the woman she had recently met, and become good friends with, boiling over.

The Doctor blinked, 'I didn't want to worry you—'

'Worry me? Well you've failed in that I can assure you!' she raged.

The Doctor turned away from his fuming companion and started to walk around the console, talking quietly to himself as he knelt down on the floor and pulled up the metal covering, revealing a large chest, 'I scanned her blood, which means that the sonic has her DNA reading…' he flipped open the chest and rummaged around in it for a moment before pulling out an object that looked very much like a digital clock. He put it on the floor and pressed a button on the side, waiting for it to turn on.

Donna glared angrily at the machine, as if this entire situation was its fault and snapped, 'how is a clock going to help us, space man?'

The Doctor began to scan the machine with his screwdriver, saying, 'its not a clock Donna, it's a DNA Manipulation Location device'.

Donna stared at him, 'in English, Doctor'.

The Doctor paused and glanced up at her, 'err…I scan DNA into it and it finds roughly where that person is for me?'

Donna put her hands on her hips, 'now wasn't that easier to say?'

The Doctor shrugged, 'not really'. He turned back and began to press a series of buttons on the device, then stared at it intently, clearly waiting for something.

Cora knelt down next to him and looked at the device with interest, 'I've never seen one of these before, though I have heard of them, but I heard that they were pretty unreliable'.

The Doctor flashed her a grin, 'that's the advantage of being me'. Cora glanced at him and saw that his eyes held the same curiosity that they had before, but without the accusation and recklessness; he was clearly prepared to wait for the answer to his question, prepared to wait until this was all over. He had been alone for so long that he would wait for years if it would mean he didn't have to be alone any longer. She felt a pang in her chest and wished desperately that she could tell him right now, to save him from that. This had all been too much for her; having to cope with telling him about Martha, remembering the family that she had left behind, and now having to stop her self from telling the man she knew so well the one thing that would either spark or quench his hopes. She gripped the floor under her and forced the words back down her throat, remembering exactly what she had been told before she came back in time and remembering just how much she would change.

At that moment there was a loud beep from the device and the Doctor turned back to it, his eyes burning with anticipation as a series of small numbers appeared on the digital screen. Donna leaned over his shoulder, her curiosity overcoming her previous annoyance, 'what's that mean?'

The Doctor jumped up, narrowly missing colliding with Donna, and ran over to the console. He started to press a series of buttons, explaining as he did, 'latitude and longitude, roughly to the nearest meter or so'.

The TARDIS began to hum just as Cora said sharply, 'shouldn't you land it a bit further away? Just encase we land directly on top of Martha?'

The Doctor nodded 'I have, hopefully just outside the building'.

The three of them grabbed onto the edge of the console as the Doctor sent the TARDIS hurtling through the vortex.

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><p><em><strong>so what do you think?<strong>_

_**i'm sorry its so short, the next one will be longer :) and it will be up sooner hopefully, once i've finished it :)**_

_**please review, again suggestions are welcome!**_


	4. of Vinegar and Blood

_**First, I must say how sorry I am that this has taken so long. I have been sick, I have had heaps of homework, and my beta has been really busy. But I must say sorry to all of you who have been waiting for this chapter. And thanks for the reviews! They really helped!**_

_**So, read, enjoy, and please review!**_

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><p>Chapter 4 ~ of vinegar and blood<p>

The TARDIS materialised with its customary whistling and grating noise in an alleyway, between two crumbling buildings. The door opened and banged against the inside of the machine as the Doctor burst out of the police box, his eyes fixed on the device in his hand. He was closely followed by Cora and a far less energetic Donna, who turned quickly to lock the door behind her. The Doctor spun several times on the spot, looking up at the building they had landed next to. It was an old one, clearly unused for several years, and by the look of it had once been a storage warehouse, if you judged by the worn sign hanging from the roof. The Doctor glanced down at the device again and nodded, 'this is the place'.

Donna looked around at the crumbling bricks and scatted rubbish and said with some distaste, 'are you sure? This doesn't really look like a place for experiments'.

The Doctor smiled tightly, 'never judge a book by its cover, Donna'. He stopped moving suddenly and sniffed, his nostrils flaring to twice their size, making him look very comical. He sniffed several more times then turned back to Donna, 'do you smell that?'

Donna sniffed then shook her head as her nose was filled with the rank smell of rotten garbage. She coughed and spluttered and flapped her hands before she managed to choke out, 'well—' she coughed 'I don't know what's so interesting about the stink of rubbish, but yes I can smell that'.

'No not that' the Doctor sniffed again then moved quickly towards the corner of the building, some several metres away, his nose lifted to the sky. He looked back over his shoulder at Donna, his mouth open to say something and then frowned, 'where's Cora?'

Donna spun around and then turned back to the Doctor, her forehead suddenly creased with concern, 'I've no idea, she was here a moment ago'.

The pair moved quickly down the alley and turned the corner. They were in a large courtyard encircled by high crumbling walls and rusty barbed wire, with cracked concrete floors. There was a walkway leading off it to the left, which had once been cut off by a gate that now hung loosely on its hinges against the brick wall. There was a heavy vale of mist in the air that settled on their hair and clothes. As they moved forward quietly, sticking to the edge of the wall. They paused at another alley and peered down it, only to find that it was so full of fog they couldn't see the end of it. They turned to keep moving along the wall when Cora suddenly burst out of the mist and skidded to a stop in front of them. Donna opened her mouth to say something when Cora grabbed her by the arm and the Doctor by his tie and yanked them into the alley, slamming the three of them against the wall, using her arms to keep them pressed against the wall. Before Donna could do more than glare at Cora, her nose was abruptly assaulted by the sour smell of vinegar. Out of the corner of her right eye she saw Cora bite her lip and the Doctor stiffen sharply. Then she heard a strange noise, like someone breathing heavily, accompanied by a strange shuffling sound. She pushed herself against the wall instinctively and held her breath. The heavy breathing grew closer and closer until the creature making it was right on top of them. And as it passed the alley, going back the way they had come, Donna saw what it was. It was a hunched creature with a head that resembled something like a gigantic fly. A strange leathery hide covered it like a cloak and a liquid substance oozed from a long dropping snout. Donna watched in disgust as the liquid hit the concrete, and as the creature moved on she saw that the liquid had started to rot the concrete away.

They waited for it to move away before Cora dropped her arms and they stepped away from the wall. Donna turned to the two time travellers and whispered, 'what the bleeding hell was that?'

The Doctor waved his hand, 'it doesn't matter much, all you need to know is that if it raises its snout up then its going to spit at you. Its spit is acid, so don't stand still'.

Donna folded her arms, 'was that the smell you were talking about before?' at the Doctor's nod she continued, 'so what's it doing here?'

It was Cora who answered, her gaze distant as if she was recalling a long forgotten memory, 'you once told me that they were often hired as mercenaries'.

The Doctor nodded, 'unfortunately they usually travel in pairs, or with other mercenaries, so there is a good chance that there will be more than one of them lurking around here, or some other sort of alien species'.

Donna threw up her hands and turned her back in exasperation, 'of course!'

The Doctor smiled slightly and then turned to Cora, 'where did you go?'

The mist had collected on Cora's face. she wiped it off with the back of her hand, 'I thought I could smell something, and as you two seemed busy I thought I would go check it out. I nearly ran into it, and when I realised what it was I came back'.

'Just in time too' said Donna dryly, flicking her damp hair over her shoulder. The three of them were covered in small points of moisture and it was starting to seep through their clothes.

Cora smiled slightly then said, 'come on, I think I saw a possible entrance to the building just before it came along'.

They stepped cautiously out of the alley and made their way slowly along the wall of the warehouse, keeping their eyes open this time, and peering into the opaque fog. Cora whispered, 'its in an alley over here somewhere, its not much of an entrance, I only saw it because that thing climbed out of it'.

She led them along the wall until they reached another alley, which she turned into. After a moment longer she stopped and pointed. The 'entrance' as she called it, was no more than a semi-circle grate set into the bottom of the wall. The Doctor crouched down in front of it and peered through the close fitting bars. He couldn't see much, only that he seemed to be looking into a dim lit cellar. He turned his head to the two waiting women and shrugged, 'its worth a shot, but I want you two to stay out here okay?'

'Not a chance spaceman, we're coming with you' snapped Donna, her temper made worse by the cold wet fog.

The Doctor looked from one determined face to the other and sighed heavily, 'just let me go first okay? Just to check that its clear'.

The two women shared a glance then nodded. They then crouched down in front of the grating and helped the Doctor to pry it away from the wall. It had been moved recently so they had no difficulty pulling it out. The Doctor peered down into the room with a slight frown before he turned around and dropped down into the dark. Cora and Donna glanced at each other as they heard the Doctor land with loud scuffling sound.

The Doctor looked around with some trepidation, waiting for his eyes to adjust to the dark. He found himself in a very long, dimly lit cellar, more of a tunnel in fact. There was an odd smell, aside from the left over smell of vinegar and the rank smell of damp, something unpleasant that seemed to settle thickly on his tongue. The thought of Martha chained somewhere in a corner of this damp smelly place, most likely badly injured, and being somehow experimented on made him feel sick.

He looked back up through the grating and called softly, 'seems clear'.

Donna came first, turning on her front and shuffling backwards on her stomach until she dropped down to join the Doctor in the cellar. Cora followed, dragging the grate in front of the hole as she went. She hung awkwardly for a moment as she wiggled the grate roughly into place before she let go and landed lightly beside Donna.

They moved deeper down the cellar tunnel in a silent agreement, every sense they had alert for the slightest sound. Their footsteps seemed to echo far too loudly in the dark. They had been walking for only a few minutes before they suddenly reached a branch in the corridor. They looked down both but neither gave any indication as to where they led. The three glanced at each other. 'Time to split up?' asked Donna with some trepidation. She hated splitting up, something bad always happened.

The Doctor nodded, 'I'll go this way, can you two stick together?'

Cora and Donna nodded. They parted with great reluctance, each of them having a different previous experience in mind, and it wasn't long before the Doctor could hear no longer hear their muffled footsteps, and was left alone in the silence with nothing but his thoughts.

That was until he heard the screaming. It came from further down the corridor, from around a bend that spilled bright fluorescent light, and made the hairs on the back of his neck rise. As he moved closer to the sound he realised that it was actually more than one person screaming, by the sounds of it, and he could now tell that some were women and some were men.

Readying himself for the worst, the Doctor moved slowly towards the curve in the tunnel, keeping his eyes on the fluorescent light leaking into the otherwise dim corridor. The screaming and shouting was ringing in his ears as he took a deep breath and rounded the corner. But he hadn't prepared himself enough. He was in a long corridor lined with cells made of bars that extended from the wall to the ceiling, and almost every single one held a human being. Or, in some cases, what had once been a human being. Men with twisted faces and women with disfigured bodies screeched and jumped around in their cells. He stared down the corridor, feeling the bile rise in his throat along with his disgust and horror. The place was rank with the smell of fear and blood.

It was a while before he could force himself to keep moving, the screams and shouts having riveted him in place. But he did manage to move in the end, creeping slowly along the corridor, trying not to let his gaze linger too much on the disfigured men and women cowering in the corners of the cells, or the ones jumping around shrieking their heads off with wild deranged looks on their faces.

As he walked he suddenly realised how angry he was. The thought that some one could take these innocent men and women and experiment on them, change them and drive them mad, and then just leave them to rot in these cells made him feel a mixture of disgust and rage. And then there were his thoughts about Martha; was she down here somewhere? Had she been experimented on so much that she had been driven mad?

The corridor felt almost endless and his neck was soon sore from constantly turning his head from left to right as his eyes searched desperately for her familiar figure. He eventually came to a section of the corridor with cells that were not inhabited by screaming people. Moving closer to the bars, the Doctor could see that the empty cells had clear signs of habitation, but that some of them hadn't been touched for a while. He hated to think what that meant.

He was walking past a cell half obscured by semi darkness when he stopped and quickly back peddled. What had attracted his attention was a very small movement coming from the back of the cell, close to where two walls met. It was a small cell, and the back wall was only about a metre or so away from the cell bars. He moved forward so that his forehead was pressed against the cold cool bars and peered with keen eyes at the figure crouching in the corner of the cell. As his eyes adjusted to the dim light he saw that the figure was crouching with its knees pulled up to its chest, hunched over so that they were protecting their stomach and their face was hidden in their knees and that they were rocking backwards and forwards slightly. But he knew, he just knew that he had finally found her.

He almost wasn't aware of pulling the sonic out of his pocket, of opening the door; he just kept his eyes fixed on her, feeling that if he looked away she would vanish. She didn't look up as he entered the cell, but her shoulders started to shake and he was hit by such a strong wave of fear that he stopped, his feet routed to the ground.

He could see her more clearly now, and there was no doubt that it was her but he still couldn't force his body to move, feeling assaulted by the emotions she was giving off, emotions that were causing his own fear and worry to rise to the surface, the images of what could have been done to her, his nightmares. Finally the Doctor managed to choke out, 'Martha?' it was a question none the less, a desperate plea for her to not be his imagination.

It seemed like an age before she lifted her head. When she did, he saw that her beautiful face, so familiar to him, was streaked with dirt and blood and creased with lines of pain and fear. He nearly burst into tears then, his relief on finding her was so great. Martha stared at him for a moment, her eyes unfocused and confused, before they suddenly widened and she jerked away from him, scrambling back across the floor until her back hit the wall, her hands raised in front of her to protect her self, her large eyes full of fear and anger.

Her expression startled him into action, his legs taking him across the dirty floor as he stretched his hands out towards her, 'Martha? Martha what's wrong?' All he wanted to do was to take her in his arms and reassure himself that she was real, but the look of horror and fear that crossed her face again was enough to stop him in his tracks once more.

The woman who he had spent so long travelling with, the woman that he loved, gazed at him for a moment before hissing four words that turned his blood cold, '_get away from me'._

The Doctor sat down on the damp floor, realising that his knees had started shaking so badly that he would have soon collapsed anyway. He stared into her dark eyes, gazing into their depths, searching for any sign that she hadn't just uttered those words. But he found nothing, and as his hearts cracked in several places he realised with horror that his worst fears had been confirmed.

She didn't know him.

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><p>Ok, so I realise how cruel it is to leave you on this note in the story, so don't worry I will try and finish the next chapter as quickly as possible!<p>

_**Please review!**_


	5. It's Me, It Really Is

_**so here, finally, is the next chapter. it took me way longer than I intended, but hopefully the length of this chapter will help to make amends :) thank you so much to everyone who reviewed, you have no idea how much it helped!**_

_**anyway, please read and enjoy!**_

_**by the way, i have a slight obsession with Downton Abbey. there is a line taken directly from the Christmas Special in this chapter, let me know if you see it! :)**_

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><p><em><strong>Chapter 5 ~ It's Me, It Really Is<strong>_

Donna and Cora were both concerned. Moving along the corridor they had chosen they had found no evidence that people were being experimented on here. They just found an empty corridor, with doors leading off it into empty rooms. Admittedly they had found signs of some kind of habitation in those rooms, rotting holes in the floor, parts of the concrete rooves ripped away, a room entirely covered in slime. There had been one room full of furniture, beds and tables, littered with empty beer bottles and tinned food cans, clear sings of human habitation. The sight of that had sent Donna into such a rage that she hadn't spoken for the last five minutes.

Cora walked a bit further down the corridor and opened another door while Donna trailed behind her, fuming silently. She walked into the room, finding her self in what seemed to be some kind of armoury. Donna followed her and looked around at the strange weapons, and said, 'these aren't from earth are they?'

Cora glanced over her shoulder, surprised, yet glad, that her friend was speaking again. 'No they're not. Actually, I'd say that they are from a range of different places, judging from the variety'. She picked up a bronze trident from where it was leaning against the wall and examined carefully, 'see, this one is from a planet where all the inhabitants are fish-like creatures. It's not as primitive as it looks, it can heat water to boiling point in a split second if they want it to, or it can freeze it'.

Donna backed away from it slightly, 'does that mean that the number of weapons here adds up to the number of people we're up against?'

Cora replaced the trident and folded her arms, 'I hope not, because if we are then we are seriously out matched'.

'Maybe we should grab something then? I mean, just to be on the safe side' said Donna anxiously, finding her self really not in the mood to fight hundreds of people unarmed.

Cora shrugged and turned to a rack of objects, 'I don't see why not. The Doctor is always going on about negotiating rather than resorting to violence, but there are just some people you can't reason with so there are exceptions. Besides, I'm really not in the mood to negotiate today'. It was clear that she meant it, and Donna knew without a doubt that she shared her friend's opinion.

Donna walked over to a shelf lined with dozens of objects, all of which resembled some sort of gun-like thing. She stared in bemusement at the hundreds of buttons and intricate wires that stuck out of some of them and then grabbed one that didn't look too complicated. The gun had a long body, with two handholds, the back one containing the trigger, and a circular piece of metal set just in front of the back handhold. The barrel was made of metal, and resembled something like an eggbeater in her opinion. She turned back to Cora; holding the gun gingerly in front of her, just encase it turned out to be some kind of bomb.

Cora was standing over near a rack of swords, holding a long knotted wooden staff in her hands, which was about a metre high and a couple of inches thick. It whistled through the air as she spun it around several times and then pressed a small button in the wood, camouflaged as a knot. Two very sharp blades slid out of the ends. Cora nodded as if confirming something and pressed the button again, concealing the blades once more. Donna decided this was a good time to interrupt and said, 'Cora, this is a gun right, not a concealed bomb?'

Cora turned to face her with a smile on her face, when she suddenly froze and stared in horror at the weapon in Donna's hands. 'Donna, where did you find that?'

Donna had decided a while ago that she shouldn't freak out whenever Cora was shocked at something, seeing as she was from the future, and said calmly, 'over on the shelf, there was only one. What is it?'

Cora swallowed, 'it's a gun like you thought, but it's based on the design of a Dalek gun stick'.

Donna frowned, slightly surprised by the obvious disgust in her voice, 'what's a Dalek?'

Cora shot Donna a look of surprise, before understanding dawned, 'oh of course, you wouldn't have met them yet. What are they? Only the most foul creatures in the universe and you had better prey that its just a coincidence that gun is here because of there is a Dalek here then we are in serious trouble'.

Donna frowned, 'what makes them the most foul creatures in the universe?' she was slightly shocked by the venom in her friends voice; even when she had been talking about whoever had caused all this to happen she had never sounded so angry.

Cora clenched the wooden staff hard and glared at it, saying, 'they have no humanity, no emotions, nothing to prevent them from destroying an entire civilisation just because it's there. They have only one aim in their miserable lives, and that's to make their species the more dominate and to survive'. She seemed to shake herself, 'never mind what makes them that way, they were engineered like that and there is no way of changing them because they have no desire to be changed'. She looked around for a moment and then picked up an ordinary human gun from the floor, 'do you think you could use this? It will make me feel a little better'.

Donna replaced the gun and accepted the offered replacement without hesitation, saying as she did, 'you sound as if you really hate these…Daleks or whatever. How did you meet them?'

Cora moved towards the entrance, saying, 'its not so much meeting them that made me hate them, though that did help to contribute, but its knowing what they've done in the past, and the fact that all through history they have never done anything good. My parents have both met them, my father many times, and the Daleks tried to have them both killed. My mother hates them. My father pities them in a way, he hates them of course, but he pities them for their lack of ability to change or to feel anything at all. He tried to teach me to pity them but my first meeting with them sort of destroyed all that work. I don't think I have ever hated anything so much in my life'.

They were walking along the corridor again now, and Donna felt as if the very air was full of Cora's hate for these creatures. After a relative pause she whispered, 'so how do I meet them, because if I can I would like to avoid it. Actually, how do you even know that I meet them?'

Cora grimaced, 'you told me about it and you said it was one of the single most awful experiences of your life. Aside from being zapped into the TARDIS on your wedding day'.

Donna smiled slightly, and then a thought stuck her, 'so you know me in the future then? Does that mean I am still travelling with the Doctor? It sounds like you know me quite well'.

Cora scrunched her face up, mentally adding another thing to the number of slip-ups she had made, 'I don't think I can tell you that, sorry'.

Donna made a face, 'can you tell me anything?' it was something she had been wondering ever since she had come to the conclusion that Cora was the future Doctor's companion. What had happened to Donna herself? Had she left? Been left? Had she died? Or was she still travelling with both the Doctor and Cora?

Cora weighed her options before giving in with a sigh, 'all right, I'll tell you one thing that I know won't upset anything' she paused for a second before continuing, 'you're happy. That's all I can tell you, you're happy and you wouldn't have anything any other way, as you yourself said'.

Donna opened her mouth to say something when she suddenly noticed that there were shadows moving towards them from a side corridor they were approaching and suddenly became aware of voices. She reacted as quickly as she could, pushing Cora roughly under the shadow of an arched doorway, blocking them from view as well as she could. She turned her back to Cora and peered around the edge of the arch. The creatures gathering in the corridor seemed to be of several different races. There was one of those fly creatures, and several more humanoid beings, including a creature that looked entirely human except for strange silvery patterns that covered its entire body, with golden eyes. There were a dozen or so in all and each and of them was carrying a weapon, except for the fly creature. They seemed to be discussing something in urgent low tones, one of them making wild gestures.

Donna swallowed slightly and whispered, 'Cora we've got trouble'. When there was no reply she turned to look at her friend and immediately moved towards her. Cora was lying slumped against the door, her head lolling on her shoulder, quite clearly unconscious. Donna realised with some horror that when she had pushed Cora into the doorway she must have tripped and her head must have hit the door. Donna moved closer to her friend and frantically pressed her fingers against the base of her neck, unable to consider that she could have killed her friend.

What happened next was a moment that Donna would remember for the rest of her life. Because instead of one pulse beating against her fingers, she felt two. Two twin pulses beating steadily away in her friend's neck. Donna jerked her hand away and stared at Cora, momentarily forgetting where she was as shock washed over her. As the world spun she remembered what Cora had said earlier; _my father pities them, he hates them of course, but he pities them._ And she remembered Cora's brief hesitation when Donna had asked whether she was the Doctor's companion, how she had said that Martha had been with them when this had all begun, and all the little slips she had made since then. And as she stared at her, stared at her properly, taking in the familiar features and countenance, she suddenly knew what had been lurking at the back of her mind for a long time.

Before she could fully process this though, Cora's eyelids flickered and focused hazily on Donna. Cora's lips moved silently for a second before she murmured, 'what happened?'

'You tripped over when I pushed you', whispered Donna, almost literally forcing the words, she still felt so shaken. 'I'm sorry', she was, she really was, she had thought for a split second that she had actually killed her.

Cora shook her head and the blurriness faded, 'I'm all right'. She was about to continue when she finally saw Donna's expression properly. Beneath the concern and relief, Cora could see an almost haunted expression, mixed with a profound feeling of shock, on her friends face. She frowned slightly, 'Donna? Is something wrong? You look shocked'.

Donna gazed into the deep brown of Cora's eyes, and knew immediately that there was no way she couldn't tell Cora what she knew, not now that she knew exactly where she had seen those eyes before. Donna shifted so that she was leaning against the door with her friend and leaned her head back against it, wondering exactly how to begin to tell Cora what she knew. Cora sat up with a slight struggle and watched her friend, trying to push down the feeling of dread inside her. After a brief pause Donna said quietly, 'Cora, when you introduce yourself to people in the future, do you call yourself Cora Smith, or Cora Jones?'

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><p>The Doctor leaned forward slightly and then back again when she shied away from him. He took a deep breath through his nose in an effort to calm himself before saying, 'Martha, its me, the Doctor'.<p>

Martha just continued to stare at him, trembling with either cold or fear, he couldn't tell, but there was no change in her expression, nothing to show that she knew him. After a moment she whispered, 'I've told you everything I know, why are you here? And don't you think its about time you used something else?'

The Doctor stared. 'Martha I don't know what you're talking about. I don't know what's happened to you here, though I can guess, but whatever it is I am so so sorry'. He held out his hands pleadingly, completely at a loss for what to do. 'Martha…please I know its hard but you have to believe that I'm here to help you'.

Martha closed her eyes, 'Doctor…I can't, I just can't throw myself into your arms and trust that it is you because I've done that before and its always turned out to be that blasted shape shifter'. She swallowed and looked at him again, searching for some sign that it was him as she continued, 'I always thought I would know you, that was one of the only things I was sure of, that I would always know that it was you. They took that away from me within a few hours of being here. I want to believe it's you, I really do, but I just can't'.

The Doctor put his head in his hands, unable to bare the broken tone in her voice, unable to bare hearing that someone had once again used him to hurt the people he loved, and in this case the person he loved with all his hearts. He looked up again slowly and gazed into her eyes, trying to express that it was him, because for once he had absolutely no idea what to do. After a second he said, 'is there a way I can prove that I am the Doctor?'

Martha looked away, unable to see the defeated expression on his face, even if she wasn't sure that it was him, and said quietly, 'if you were the real Doctor you would know the answer'.

The Doctor took a deep breath, slightly comforted by the knowledge that not all was lost. He spent a moment trying to work out what to say to her, when he remembered something. Taking another deep breath he said, 'do you remember the day we first met, and we were transported to the moon?'

Martha smiled despite herself, 'how could I forget?'

The Doctor continued to look into her eyes as he went on, 'do you remember how I asked you to come out onto the balcony, and how you didn't hesitate, even though I told you it would be dangerous? You just followed me out onto the balcony, out onto the moon bathed in the earth's light. Do you remember what you said?'

Martha shook her head. But she did remember, she remembered exactly what had happened; she just wanted to hear him say it. The Doctor smiled wistfully, 'You said that it was beautiful. You should have been terrified, frightened at least, that you were standing on the moon and you were still able to breathe properly. But while almost everyone else in the hospital was screaming themselves horse, you were gazing at the surface of the moon and declaring it beautiful'.

He could see that she was affected by the story, knew that she knew that no one else could possible know that as they had been completely alone at the time, but he could still see doubt in her eyes. So he reached out slowly and took her hands in his, and gently pulled it towards him. She didn't resist to his surprise, just watched him with large eyes until he had laid her hand over his chest. Underneath his shirt she could feel the steady beat of his twin hearts and the breath she had been holding whooshed out of her as she laughed with relief. That had always been what gave away the others, either she had noticed that they weren't acting like the Doctor or she hadn't been able to feel his heartbeats. He gazed down at her with hope as her face flooded with relief and warmth and never felt so relieved. She looked up at him and smiled, 'it really is you'.

He nodded and leaned forward, resting their foreheads in together, nearly overwhelmed by the relief that was rushing through him, and murmured, 'its me'.

They stayed like that for a few minutes, both comforted by the fact that the other was there. For Martha, she was still coming to terms with the fact that he was there, that he had actually found her, that he wasn't a fake. The Doctor was just relieved that he had finally found her and that she seemed relatively unharmed and that he could finally make her safe. He swore silently to himself that it would be a long time before he let her out of his sight again. Neither was aware that the Doctor was still holding her hand to his chest.

Suddenly the moment was broken as Martha's body abruptly twitched and convulsed violently, her limbs flew out from under her as her body jerked wildly. The Doctor grabbed her and pulled her onto his lap, holding her tightly as she continued to shake, to prevent her from hurting herself. His hearts were pounding in his chest as he held her small frame in his arms; all sorts of scenarios as to what the cause could be springing to his mind, fearing that he was going to lose her again. Finally the convulsions settled down until they ceased with a last tremble. The Doctor held her to his chest for a moment before pulling away slightly and looking down into her face, saying urgently, 'Martha, talk to me, please'.

Martha smiled weakly, 'I'm all right', at his expression she insisted, 'no really, I'm all right, it doesn't hurt'.

He leaned her back against the wall and knelt in front of her, searching her eyes for any sign that she was in pain. When he found none he said, 'so what caused that then?'

Martha continued to grip his hands in her own, needing his warmth, the only warmth she had felt since being there. 'I trust you've seen the other experiments?'

A shadow passed over his face as he nodded, silently urging her to continue. After a moment, she did. 'What they've done to me is far less drastic and inhumane. I'm not sure why there are so many of them here, or why they all look so disfigured, but from what I've heard I think they were the beginning experiments and that the people here were just trying to get used to manipulating DNA'. The anger and disgust in her voice was clear and she had started to shake again. The Doctor sat down beside her and put an arm around her shoulders, pulling her gently against his shoulder and keeping their hands linked. This was enough for her to continue, albeit slowly. 'They keep referring to me as the 'final experiment'. Apparently they had been trying to achieve the same thing for a long time but that it just wasn't working and people were just being driven insane as a result. Until they found me'.

'Why you?' asked the Doctor, 'was there a reason? Or were you just in the wrong place at the wrong time?'

She smiled slightly, 'I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. But when they started to experiment on me, they found that for some unknown reason it was working. They said it was something to do with me having mutated cells, because of the time travel'. She stopped at this, seeing the way his face closed up, and said, 'its not your fault Doctor'. She knew him too well to hope that he wasn't blaming himself.

The Doctor shook his head angrily, 'yes it is. If I hadn't taken you with me then you wouldn't have something growing inside you that caused you to convulse randomly and—'

Martha interrupted him, 'Doctor, you were one of the best things that ever happened to me. You opened my eyes to what was really out there and I have seen things that most men and women could only dream about. Besides, if you hadn't taken me and I had still been experimented on then I would have gone mad. I'm in perfect health Doctor, or as close as I can get to it in the current situation. Its not hurting me. The convulsions are just a side affect of it reaching a new stage in its growth development, my body reacts that way because its not used to it. They're a lot more violent at the moment because, according to the people here, it's almost reached its full growth'.

The Doctor couldn't help the slight thrill that rushed through him when she said that he was the best thing that ever happened to her. But there was a more pressing thing on his mind at that moment. For one, she hadn't actually told him what this 'it' was that was growing inside her, and he was busy imagining all sorts of different things, the most pressing one being some sort of embryo. He shifted against her, brushing his thumb gently over her shoulder as he whispered, 'what is this thing growing inside you anyway?'

So his surprise Martha pulled away from him slightly so that she could look at him properly. Her eyes were fraught with conflict and she bit her lip before saying, 'I don't know if I should tell you, you might not be able to handle it'.

The Doctor leaned forward and took her hands in his again, saying; 'now you really must tell me because nothing could be worse than my imaginings'.

Martha hesitated for a moment before nodding, 'alright, but you must remember that I have no idea why they are doing this, nor how its even possible. And you must promise me that you won't faint'.

The Doctor raised his eyebrows, 'it would take a lot to make me faint'.

Martha laughed softly, 'this is pretty big, trust me'. She studied him for a moment, noticing the new lines on his handsome face and wondering what had been the cause for that. His appearance was even more dishevelled than usual; his hair stood up a hundred different directions, his tie was loose, his shirt was crinkled and he had buttoned it the wrong way. He was gripping her hands tightly, all most too tightly, as if he was afraid that she would slip through his fingers if he held her gently. She pulled one of her hands away and touched his cheek, 'I'm not really sure how to tell you; its not really something I can say'.

He leant into her hand, wanting more of the soft contact, 'then show me'.

She swallowed, praying that he wouldn't freak out, and then used both her hands to pull his head towards her on an angle. He didn't resist, but followed her lead, leaning forward on his hands and knees, and when she bought his head against her chest he didn't pull away, though it did cause his hearts to start pounding a million miles an hour at being this close to her. He wasn't sure exactly what she wanted to show him but he didn't mind, he was content to rest there for a moment, eyes closed, listening to her heart beat. His eyes snapped open. He sat up slightly and pressed his ear more firmly against her chest, paying more attention, unable to believe it when he heard it. His ear was resting in the centre of her chest and he could clearly hear her heart, but there was another sound, a slightly softer echo that was keeping in time with her heart. He shifted all most unconsciously, bringing his ear to the right side of her chest, and the echo grew louder, becoming a slightly fainter heartbeat. He couldn't just hear it; he could feel it, feel her skin move with each pulse. And though the evidence of what was really going on was right in front of him, it took a moment for him to realise exactly what this meant. Because this changed everything. Martha was growing a second heart.

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><p><em><strong>sorry, i know its a really bad place to end the chapter! what do you think?<strong>_

_**suggestions are welcome, but please review!**_


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